If they w0uld do this, it would save the city at least $1520 a month or 18, 240 per year if my math is correct. Take that saved money and put it in the "pool fund", show the people you are ready to sincerely make an effort to save money and at the same time work toward really saving some money to help reduce our debt and building up savings for the pool that they believe we need.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Less Bang for Your Buck at Peru Council Meetings
It appears the past 2 City Council meetings were operating at a loss. The facts are at last nights meeting and the previous one, 7 aldermen were present along with the Mayor, City Clerk, Treasurer, Test, and Chamlin Eng., Police Chief and Fire Chief. All except the Aldermen are salaried and bring no extra cost to the city but each aldermen receives $95.00 per meeting. And Test and Chamlin would not be charging to be at the meetings anyway, at least I hope not.
The meeting on Nov. 17 was 15 minutes long and I figured it cost us $46.34 per min. and then last night, they met for 30 minutes at a cost of $23.17 per minute. In addition consider the lights and heat. Isn't it time to cut the meetings down to 2 a month like almost every community in the state and maybe nationwide.
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11 comments:
What an excellent idea Lois! Your math is absolutely correct. Wouldn't it be appropriate for those who are adament about the necessity of having a pool (the aldermen) to give up something to support it. It's actually embarrassing to sit there and hear "no report at this time" over and over again. If there's nothing to report then a meeting is not necessary. Something to think about citizens of Peru when it comes to election time. You might ask your favorite candidate how he or she feels on this issue.
Lois, it amazes me how smart you are. How you can figure that out. But not one of the aldermen would go along with it. Thats why they have such big backsides, from sitting on their brains, that aren't working. Our aldermen don't want to save the city money. If the Mayor made a move to only do 2 meetings a month, they would vote 8-0 to continue 4 a month, which is stupid.
ANON 2:18 I believe the Mayor did in deed propose having 2 meetings a month but it fell on deaf ears. He also proposed starting the meetings at 7:00 and that too fell on deaf ears. Pretty much everything he proposes falls on deaf ears. There is no unity with this council. Remember that in April.
Yes the tax increases fell on deaf ears, electric rate increases fell on deaf ears, hiring friends as department heads fell on deaf ears, salary increases for selected employees fell on deaf ears, and yes eliminating public meetings did fall on deaf ears. Lets be positive and list the accomplishments of our Mayor and be proud that those council members were not able to take away the 4 additional unions we were able to establish. And there has been more private meetings or executive session meetings in one month than 30 years. That is real progress. If we had one meeting a month than our Mayor would be able to keep Peru in the dark, a place he has been for almost 2 years. Better yet lets just eliminate all public meetings and not have elected city officials. Just let the Mayor run the city and we pay our dues. Who needs democracy? We would all be better off with just a blog site filled with conspiracy theories. If your report is correct and nothing is on the agenda then that would tell me your leader is fast asleep at the steering wheel.
12:07 PM
As I read your posting, I wondered where you have been for the past 1 1/2 years. The City Council just passed an increase in our utility bills to pay for a pool we don't need. Salary increases all are approved by the City Council. The unions several of which have been in place for years were not initiated by this Mayor.
Please remember that Mayor Harl tried to bring in a SPW from outside Peru and also a city engineer and ran into a brick wall (aldermen).
I will be looking into all the closed meetings that are now available for viewing as there is a 6 month wait period until the minutes are made available.
At the start of the Harl administration, I know that many of the closed sessions were held regarding new heads of departments.
The fact that nothing of importance is on the council agenda, simply means that there are too many meetings per month and not enough action is required for them to meet. As in unneeded meetings for unimportant topics.
Keep the ambulance service on your radar in days and maybe months ahead of us.
We now have a public comment portion at each city council meeting to ask your questions or comments. It is no longer necessary to go through your Alderman first to request permission to speak.
Since there have been 14 petitions taken out to run for city council, it seems that residents are now taking an interest in what is going on here in Peru. We might be getting to the point where democracy exists here and not the oligarchy that had been here for a good many years.
12:07 p.m. - Your spin is impressive but it's just that. SPIN. Your attempt to breath life into non-issues like department head hiring, pay increases, unions, and closed meetings only indicates your fear of coming face to face with the only critical issue in Peru. CITY FINANCES! It's all about the money dummy, and the current lack of it. Don't bore us with claims of patronage, illegal meetings, unions and union-busting, and a serious lack of democracy. All those practices were rejected by the people of Peru with the defeat of the previous administration. You are correct about only one thing. The Mayor and Treasurer have informed the aldermen of the dire financial situation the previous mayor and council have dumped in our laps. The Mayor and Treasurer have also informed the aldermen they need to
"act" by increasing revenue or cutting spending or both. Hard facts laid right out on the table for the aldermen.
How did the aldermen respond to the only real critical issue in Peru right now? They agreed to do nothing. Nothing! They, like you want only to obstruct, maintain gridlock, and focus all their attention on what should be the biggest non-issue of them all. A 3.5 Million dollar pool that will not be large enough to hold all our debt.
Lois & Steve:
When the issue is one you are not interested in addressing, it automatically becomes a non-issue. And I'm sure that it does indeed appear that no-one else is interested in my "non-issue" because they have not been allowed to post said interest on your blog. (By the way, it is not my only issue, just one that I would like to see addressed but alas, not to be so, not here at least.) Steve, city finances is the only issue? It is definately directly tied to every issue, but it is not the only issue. Perhaps the Aldermen did nothing when presented with the dire circumstances of the City's finances as they were presented with no ideas by the Mayor or Treasurer of what needs to be done. Or perhaps, doing nothing could simply mean they do not agree with the options as put before them and therefore, choose to "pass". Without good leadership, even the best soldiers stand in harms way. Perhaps Anon 11-26 (12:07) is correct about the captain's position at the wheel.
Respectully,
Little Bird
P.S. Again, I would ask that if you want to keep this blog respectful, Steve, you leave words like "dummy" out of your vocabulary. That is not respectful by any standard.
Lois and Anon 2:11
My petitions are signed and I will be on the April 5th Ballot for the 2nd.Ward. I have made a commitment that If elected I will contribute my first $1000.00 of earned wages to the pool fund.
To answer your question on how I feel as a candidate on saving the city money by the council reducing the amount of meetings per month is something worth looking into, meaning..If we can save the city and tax payers money without sacrificing serving our constituents then I am in support of these type of cuts.
Thank You,
Rodney Perez
That shows where their brains are.
Rodney Perez seems to be open to suggestions from the people. He deserves your vote.
Little Bird,
Your post got caught in my spam filter and I have been much too busy lately to put much into the blog. In truth, you are the only one who has brought up your favorite topic and you aren't seeing anything because no one has written on the topic. If they do and I don't publish, I will let them know just as I did for you.
Please don't give the Peru aldermen any excuses about why they haven't brought up suggestions on finances as they have been elected to offer solutions on any problems the city has. It is not solely the Mayor's responsibility but I must admit that is the way this city functioned under the former Mayor Baker. We want aldermen who sit on the finance committee and other committees to learn about the problems facing Peru and offer thoughtful solutions and present them to the full council for conversation and decisions.
If you want to leave the solutions to the Mayor and City Treasurer, I think it would be a good idea to dissolve the City Council and save the money we pay them for simply coming to the meetings and to object to the Mayors comments and make the Mayor the sole authority running this city like it used to be. Or as I have heard said "That is the way we have always done it"
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